Cape Girardeau filmmakers race against the clock

The countdown began at exactly 7:00 p.m. on Friday, June 10 at the KDHX Studio in St. Louis, MO. Thirty-six teams of filmmakers gathered to determine the theme the rest of their weekend would follow. One of these teams was comprised of members from the Cape Filmmakers Cooperative, a group of filmmakers based out of Cape Girardeau. Earlier that evening, four members of the team had driven the two hours to participate in the 48 Hour Film Project. The Film Project is an event that takes place in thirty-two cities, on three continents. All teams meet at a designated location on Friday night, where they pick a genre in a lottery type set up. The 12 possible genres are super hero, action / adventure, spy, fantasy, science fiction, horror, comedy, detective / cop, romance, mystery, musical / western and mockumentary. All teams were then given a same prop, a line and a character that must be used in each movie. After synchronizing their watches, each team leaves, knowing that withing the next 48 hours, they must write, shoot and edit a 4-7 minute movie that has to be turned in by exactly 7:30 p.m. the following Sunday.

While four members of his team made their way to St. Louis, team member Pat Bond was stuck at work. The team members checked in with him periodically from St. Louis, calling about 7:00 p.m. to inform Pat that team member, Charles Parsons, had picked their genre. They were going to have 48 hours to complete a spy movie. The team met at Breakaways after picking up team member Katie Gibbs from her home in Belleville, IL. At Breakaways that night, they ran through the storyline with Bond. At 2:00 a.m., they met at Bond's apartment, picking up an array of fast food along the way. The script was typed and the scenes were pieced together. The various team members fell asleep about 6:00 a.m., only to wake up at 7:30 a.m. to start the day. While some team members went shopping for props, including a briefcase and flotation device, others went to the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport to try and secure it as a location. Once the locations, which were the Cape Airport, Breakaways and BART Transportation, were confirmed, the team met back up at home base to fine tune the details. Pat Bond made a prop bomb out of cardboard, modeling clay and electrical wires, the actors went through their lines and decided on wardrobe. The shooting at the Airport came first, where the team filmed for an hour, while fielding questions from the Southeast Missourian. Then the team moved to Breakaways, where they had to wait 30 minutes for the rain to stop before continuing filming. At BART, they had the scenes completed in just over 20 minutes.

From BART, they proceeded back to Bond's apartment, where the race against time continued. Bond stationed himself in front of the computer, pulling the raw footage from the tapes, and began to compile them into a movie. Team members milled around the apartment, stopping in to offer Bond advice, bring him coffee or rub his shoulders. While Bond was cutting the final product together, other team members lounged in the living room and watched TV, or sat in the kitchen going over the days events. Greg Levrault baked a cake, complete with the 48 hour film logo designed in frosting. Jonathan Fritzler designed the opening title, while the youngest member, Sam Levrault, finally gave into exhaustion and fell asleep.

Bond continued editing into the early morning hours, the film from start to finish was completed at about 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning. When all was said and done, the team had an average of 5 hours of sleep within a 48 hour period, and consumed more fast food and coffee than humanly possible. Sunday was a day of rest for the crew, with the exception of Bond, who once again had to work. The team piled into a caravan of cars about 5:00 p.m., and hit the road for St. Louis. After some last minute directions via cell phone, and a couple of wrong turns, the team made it to the drop off location, the Moolah Theater, at 7:09 p.m., with 21 minutes to spare. While there, they witnessed a true illustration of the race against time. As the people around them began the final countdown to 7:30 p.m., one filmmaker slammed open the door, ran inside and threw his submission towards the drop off table. It hit the table as the countdown hit one.

After the stress of the weekend was over, the team had a few drinks with the other filmmakers, then started back to Cape. On Wednesday, June 18th, they traveled to St. Louis once again to watch all the films being shown at the Pageant. All 36 films were shown on the big screen at the venue, although the late entries were barred from all awards except the Audience Choice. The screening lasted 5 hours, and everyone was still so exhausted from the weekend, they drove straight back to Cape. The winners were announced on Friday, and the Cape Filmmakers Co-op didn't make it into the top twelve. But everyone involved in the making of "The Last Job", about the final assignment of spy M. Marso, truly enjoyed the experience and the accomplishment that came from this weekend devoted entirely to film making.

"The Last Job" and selected films from the 48 Hour Film Project, will be screened at the 2nd Annual Show Me Digital Film Festival, which will be held over two days in November 2005. For updates on the Festival and more news from the Cape Film Makers Cooperative, visit capefilm.com. For more information on the 48 Hour Film Project, and to view all of the films (including "The Last Job") made during the Film Project, visit 48hourfilm.com.